Indira Gandhi said Sanjay small fry, he won't be PM : WikiLeaks

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Last Updated: Thu, Apr 11, 2013 08:06 hrs

A US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks claims that Indira Gandhi had said that her younger son, Sanjay would never be the Prime Minister of the country. Indira, the cable claims, called her son "a small fry".

"He is much too small a fry or person because he is not going to be the prime minister or the president. All he can be is a Congress worker. So I think the attack is definitely on me," Indira had said on December 27, 1976, at the height of Emergency.

"In fact I think he never would have come into politics if there had not been that tremendous attack on him in Parliament even before the Emergency because basically he was not interested in any of these things," the cable quoted Indira Gandhi as saying.

'Three assassination attempts on Sanjay'

Another revelation from the US diplomatic cables is that three assassination attempts were made on Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency.

In a September 1976 dispatch, the US embassy reported the then prime minister Indira Gandhi's younger son was targeted by an unknown assailant in a "well planned assassination attempt". The attempt however failed.

"Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay was shot three times on August 30 or 31 by an unknown assailant. According to Indian intelligence, this is the third attempt on the younger Gandhi's life," the cable states.